Read the excerpt from a history of the world in 100 objects. this object has on it the image of a king, but this particular example has been appropriated by women – disfigured by a slogan as an act of female protest against the laws of the state. it is a british penny with king edward vii in elegant profile, but his image has been defaced in what was then a criminal act. stamped all over the king’s head in crude capitals are the words votes for women. why does the author include this description of the penny in beginning of the chapter? to emphasize for the reader the difference between modern currency and the british currency of that time period to make the reader wonder about what was featured on the other side of the penny to make the reader visualize the coin and become interested in learning more about the culturally significant artifact to explain to the reader how women of this time period were negatively affected by most laws

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt